Red Axe eBook

But the little maid struck an attitude, and tapped
the floor with her foot.

“I will not,” she said. “What
is the Duke Casimir to me that am a Princess?
If he is good, I will give him my hand to kiss!”

But at this point I rushed from the ladder-head, and,
taking her in my arms, I sped up the turret stairs
with her out upon the leads, my hand over her mouth
all the time.

And as I ran I could hear the Duke trampling upward
not twenty steps in the rear. I opened the trap-door
and went out into the clear morning sunshine.
And only the turn of the stair prevented Casimir from
seeing me go up the narrow turret corkscrew with my
little white burden.

Then I heard voices beneath, and I knew, as if I had
seen it, that my father stood up straight at the salute.
Presently the voices lowered, and I knew also that
the Duke Casimir was unbending as he did to none else
in his realm save to the Hereditary Justicer of the
Wolfmark.

But I had my hands full with the little Princess.
I dared not go down the stairs. I dared not for
a moment take my palm off her mouth. For as like
as not she would call out for the Duke Casimir to come
and deliver her from my cruelty. So I stuck to
my post, even though I knew that I angered her.

The morning was warm for a winter’s day in Thorn,
and I pulled open my brown blanket and wrapped her
coseyly within it, chilling myself to the bone as
I did so.

It seemed ages before the Duke strode down the stair
again, and took his way across the yard, with my father,
in black, after him. For so he was used to dress
when he went to the Hall of Judgment, to be present
and assist at the discovery of crime by means of the
Minor and Extreme Questions.

Then, so soon as they were fairly gone, I took my
hand from the mouth of the Little Playmate, and carried
her down-stairs; which as soon as I had done, she
slapped my face soundly.

“I will never, never speak to you any more so
long as I live, rude boy—­common street
brat!” she said, biting her under-lip in ineffectual,
petulant anger. “Listen, never as long as
I live! So do not think it! Upstart, so
to treat a lady and a Princess!”

And with that she burst into tears.

CHAPTER V

THE BLOOD-HOUNDS ARE FED

But the Princess-Playmate spoke to me again.
I was even permitted to call her Helene. Me she
addressed uniformly as “Hugo Gottfried.”
But neither her name nor mine interfered with our
plays, which were wholly happy and undisturbed by
quarrelling—­at least, so long as I did exactly
what she wished me to do.

On these terms life was made easy for me from that
day forth. No longer did I wistfully watch the
children of the street from the lonely window of the
Red Tower. They might spit all day on the harled
masonry at the foot of the wall for aught I cared.
I no longer desired their society. Had I not
that of a real Princess, and if my companion was inclined
to be a little wayward and domineering—­why,
was not that the very birthright of all Princesses?